TOMB RAIDERS OF AMPHIPOLIS
By Prof. L. Kaliambos (Natural Philosopher in New Energy) December 2014 Most archaeologists believe that the first looting of the Amphipolis tomb in Macedonia of north Greece took place during the Roman era with campaigns to conquer Greek land. According to the History of Greek People ( Ekdotike Athenon, Volume E, from page 120 to page 130 ) on June 22, 168 BC the Roman General Lucius Aemilius Paulus (c. 229 BC – 160 BC ) won the decisive battle of Pydna. The King of Macedonia Perseus was made prisoner and the Third Macedonian War ended. After the battle of Pydna Aemilius Paulus soon was located for a long time in Amphipolis, because he learned that the city was full of treasures. This photo is from the interview I gave to the author of Spiritual Thessally Mrs Dimitra Bardani for my discovery of the mathematical Hephaestion tomb in Amphipolis. Taking into account the press conference ( November 29, 2014) that the Hepahestion cone pyramid was open like a museum, one should conclude that for Paulus it was very easy to loot all buried treasure. But according to the historical sources he did not destroy the statues, the mosaics, and the skeleton inside the tomb, because he loved the Greek culture. Under this condition he left also the statue of the lion back which was like a leading light on the top of the cone pyramid near Amphipolis. In 167 B.C. in Amphipolis Aemilius Paulus proclaimed the "freedom" of the Macedonians. However, in practice, he divided the Macedonian state into four parts separated by sealed borders. Amphipolis, Pella, Thessaloniki, and Pelagonia were named the capitals. Meanwhile, back in Macedonia , while permitting his army time to rest over the fall and winter in Amphipolis, Paulus set about on a tour of the country, visiting all the major centers. It was during this tour that the real “victory celebrations” began. They would last in their entirety until after his official triumph in Rome (167 B.C). He brought to Amphipolis, the site of solemn games. Immediately following the games, he loaded all the valuable spoils of war onto his ships and publicly torched the remainder, all gathered in enormous heaps. Visitors to the games would have witnessed this and indeed, Livy states as much. The politically astute Paulus had thus essentially used the festivities to proclaim that it was now a kinder Rome that ruled the Macedonians, but by linking the games with his victory. There was no mistaking that further transgressions would be dealt with harshly. In the same way, he had made an unwritten statement to his Roman countrymen that Greek culture was the better choice for spectacle than the extravagant and increasingly abhorrent games that were growing in popularity in Rome. Paulus' return to Rome was glorious. With the immense plunder collected in Amphipolis , he celebrated a spectacular triumph, featuring no less than the captured king of Macedonia himself, and his sons, putting an end to the dynasty. Understanding the history of the tomb raiders of Hephaestion cone pyramid at Amphipolis depends critically on determining when and by whom the intensive sealing operation was conducted. One can answer this question by concluding that after the spectacular triumph at Rome with the golden decoration of the statues of Amphipolis the “free Macedonians” erected the sealing walls for protecting from any future vandalism what Aemilius Paulus abandoned as remains in good condition, like the sphinxes , the caryatids, the mosaics, and the skeleton in the grave. The excavation team in Amphipolis found that sealing walls of massive, unmortared blocks seemingly taken from the surrounding wall were erected in front of both the caryatids and in front of the sphinxes and all three of the chambers within were sedulously filled with sand dredged from the bed of the nearby River Strymon. It was confirmed in the presentations of 29th November that the holes in the masonry near the level of the arched ceiling were used to carry sand into the interior after the sealing walls had been erected and were not made by looters. However, the most intriguing statement made on 29th November was by architect Michael Lefantzis, who is reported to have said that the sealing walls were made and the backfilling was done in the Roman era, whilst also confirming that the sealing walls were manufactured from material removed from another part of the monument. The archaeologists also said that the tomb was open to visitors and a Roman sealing might be taken to imply that visits to the tomb took place for at least several centuries. The difficulty with a Roman era sealing is the question of motive. It will have been expensive and time-consuming to build the sealing walls and to dredge and transport thousands of tons of sand. Also, since there were no grave goods left, the only thing of possible value inside the tomb was the bones themselves. Yet these bones were left scattered about in and out of the grave slot. If the sealer was concerned to protect the bones, why did he not tidy them up before sealing the tomb? An easy way to remove doubt on the sealing date would be to conclude that the “free Macedonians” in a small period after 167 CD were able to erect in front of the sphinxes only the sealing walls. In that period all three of the chambers within were not filled with sand. It happened much more later (fourth century AD) when fanatical Christian priests, like vandals, destroyed the statue of the lion on the top of the conical pyramid and inside the conical pyramid they destroyed also the sphinxes, the mosaics, and the skeleton. In fact, the archaeologist Katerina Peristeri said on November 29th that there were no potsherds or coins in the main chamber, but that the archaeologists found a lot in other areas: “In the main chamber we do not have any grave goods. They have been taken away or maybe they were somewhere else. The geo-survey that we are doing may give us more info about what there might be elsewhere, but in the other areas we have pottery and coins that are being cleaned and studied. We simply haven’t shown them to you. The dating is in the last quarter of the fourth century B.C in one phase and we have coins from the 2nd century B.C, which is the era of the last Macedonians to protect their monument and from the Roman years from the 3rd century A.D.” Unfortunately, this remains ambiguous on the question of whether any of this evidence was found within the sealing wall erected in front of the sphinxes. In general, the latest datable material is likely to be a good indication of when the Hephaestion conical pyramid was finally sealed. If anything definitely Roman has been found inside that wall, then the final sealing was very probably at the period of the emperor Julian who after a vandalism made by fanatic Christian priests of Constantine’s era governed later to love Greek culture. In that case the parallel evidence that the tomb has only been lightly visited may imply that the sealing history is fairly complex, involving an early sealing, at the time after 167 BC, a later opening and a final re-sealing at the time of the emperor Julian (361-363). According to the History of Greek People ( Ekdotike Athenon, Volume ΣΤ page 200, and Volume Z, pages 40 and 42 ) during the third century AD under a new policy of Romans the worship of Alexander the Great was revived in Macedonia, while later Constantine the Great during his rule promoted Christians to high office and fanatic persons destroyed a large number of temples and monuments. In other words in a period from 330 to 337 fanatic priests destroyed the statue of lion, the sphinxes, the mosaics, and the skeleton. Fortunately during the era of emperor Julian, sane Macedonians in Amphipolis were able to protect the ruined grave by another future vandalism. In “Julian-WIKIPEDIA” one reads: “He restored pagan temples which had been confiscated since Constantine’s time.” So judicious Macedonians as authentic descendants of Alexander the Great decided to protect the ruined statues the mosaics and the destroyed coffin with the skeleton inside the Hephaestion tomb by filling the chambers with sand dredged from the bed of the nearby River Strymon. In that very small period of the polytheism they could not restore the statue of the lion, because the vandalism led to a large number of pieces. Such pieces were found by Greek soldiers during the Second Balkan War that had camped in the area during 1912 - 1913. They were followed by British soldiers a few years later in 1916 during World War I who also discovered significantly large parts of the monument. In the early 1930s during works for drying part of the Lake Kerkini nearby, there was a discovery of an ancient bridge and close to it within the mud of the river further very large pieces of the marble lion. In 1937, and thanks to Lincoln MacVeagh the US ambassador in Greece at the time, there was a private initiative along with support and funds from the Greek government to restore the Lion of Amphipolis, which eventually came to be in its current form. The whole process has been documented thoroughly by Oscar Broneer in his book 'The Lion of Amphipolis' published in 1941. Michalis Lefantzis, the architect who elaborated the draft of Kasta Tomb for the Ministry of Culture made a shocking revelation. He told the journalists attending the presentation that a British brigade was planning to transfer to London 1,000 pieces of the monument precinct, along with the statue of the lion. On the day of the transfer, Austrian and Bulgarian troops attacked the British convoy and, as a result, the barges sunk in the river Strymonas and the ancient artifacts were “saved”. To conclude I emphasize that despite the looting made by Romans and the vandalism of fanatic Christian priests my discovery of the one stadion in the conical pyramid in Amphipolis shows that it is the only one survived monument made for the DIVINE HERO HEPHAESTION, which gives us the unit of length used by Dinocrates, who planned also the foundation of Alexandria including the astronomical numbers 7, 12, and 3 . (See my DINOCRATES). Eratosthenes also using the Alexandrian stadion = 157.5 m found the perimeter of our Earth. Based on such a discovery Aristarchus of Samos developed the Heliocentric System responsible for the progress of astronomy and of fundamental physics at the time of Newton. (Universal law of gravity). Unfortunately Einstein in his invalid general relativity tried to overthrow the well-established law of gravity. (See my NEWTON AND GALILEO REJECTS EINSTEIN). Category:Fundamental physics concepts